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GroundTruth Blog

In a surprise move earlier this week, European officials put a hold on continued use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's flagship herbicide RoundUp. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now well into its seventh year of reviewing the controversial chemical.
The European delay comes in the face of strong opposition to the proposed 15-year re-licensing agreement from Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Public concern has been growing since the World Health Organization (WHO) labeled glyphosate a "probable human carcinogen" early last year. More than 1.... Read More

You heard right, the "DARK Act" is back. Next week, Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) is planning to introduce a bill that would block state rights to label genetically engineered (GE) food, even if labeling laws are already on the books. The bill would also prohibit states from regulating GE crops at all.
Dubbed the "Denying America's Right to Know" Act by opponents, a version of this bill (H.R. 1599) was passed through the House last summer. Given how much money pesticide and GE seed corporations have spent in recent years to keep GE labeling laws off the books, Monsanto and friends are keen to... Read More

A new report by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) reminds us that we have a lot to learn about the risks of exposure to multiple pesticides at a time. Hmmmm. "Exposure to multiple pesticides at a time" — isn't that what we face in the real world? Yes, it is. Read on.
The researchers, who work with UCLA's Sustainable Technology & Policy Program, looked specifically at exposures to three fumigant pesticides: Telone (or 1,3-dichloropropene), chloropicrin, and metam sodium. Here's what they found:
Some California residents are exposed to all three... Read More

What do you call it when the nation’s largest potato company, with strong ties to the pesticide industry, digs in its deep pockets to dodge accountability for its impacts on local communities? Here at PAN we call it “corporate capture” — the outsize influence that pesticide companies and other corporate powerholders in our food system have over the agencies that are meant to regulate them.
Recently in Minnesota I’ve been watching potato giant RD Offutt (RDO) resort to a number of the most common moves from the corporate capture playbook. But I'm happy to report that I've also seen a... Read More

From an Interview with Elizabeth Mpofu by Simone Adler
Who we are fighting for is every single peasant farmer – more than 200 million – on the planet. People are eager to join hands in building a global voice.
Transnational corporations are pushing policies in African countries for industrial farming and the use of GMO [genetically modified] seeds, while grabbing our land and [stealing] our natural resources. No one should come and tell us how to produce food.
In Via Campesina, we believe in controlling our land and seeds and producing the healthy food that we want, the way we... Read More

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has just been signed by all twelve participating countries. But the massive and highly controversial trade agreement still has a long and rocky road ahead before it can go into effect.
The deal must be ratified by Congress, whose leadership is increasingly opposed to letting the TPP become law. Meanwhile, the growing movement against the TPP even has presidential frontrunners in both parties criticizing aspects of the agreement, if not opposing the whole thing.
Bad for farming
President Obama continues to tout the agreement as one of his top... Read More

What does it take to turn 75,000 hectares of farmland organic? Well, people in the state of Sikkim can now speak to that. A mountainous region in eastern India, Sikkim recently became the first state in that country to go fully organic.
The Chief Minister of Sikkim announced this vision for the state's 290 square miles of agricultural land in 2003, in response to the serious environmental and health problems resulting from chemically intensive farming methods. A combination of political will, use of local farmer's traditional knowledge and the willingness to share technical know-how made... Read More

More than 20 years after neonicotinoid pesticides hit the market, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its first assessment of the impacts on honey bees. Looking at one neonic in isolation — Bayer's imidacloprid — the agency acknowledges some harm to bees. But it's still missing the big picture.
EPA's assessment concludes that "imidacloprid potentially poses risk to hives when the pesticide comes in contact with certain crops that attract pollinators." The agency points specifically to citrus and cotton, where pesticide residues above EPA's acceptable level were... Read More